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A soft click means I open one eye from where I’m reveling in the hot water. It’s soothing my ever itchy skin, even if I’m no closer to a shed. My cock is pressing hard at my pouch, and I’d usually indulge in some self-care when in my bath.

But this time I have a fragrant female in my quarters and something is stopping me. The same thing which is setting my blood on fire, making my hips twitch, making me playful where I’d normally be tearing off heads.

I’m staring down the barrel of my own laser rifle. It seems my little female is very serious about freeing herself. At least this plan is a better one than using the old award I have for the flight games. The one I told her was a fertility statue. I’d rather not have been hit in the head with it.

The award is one of the only things I have from the time before our planet was destroyed and, as a fleet, we got sucked through the wormhole into this place.

“Get out,” she says.

I stand, water sluicing from my scales. I am huge compared to her tiny form, and yet it attracts me in a way I don’t understand.

My hips twitch again.

“Put your pants on,” the little creature says.

“If I’m to be held at pulsar point, at least let me know your name,” I say, dragging on my pants as requested.

Like all Sarkarnii, pants are optional for me most of the time. They get in the way of a shift for a start, but having pockets is helpful.

“You don’t need to know it. I won’t be here long enough,” she growls.

“I’d still like to know the name of the female who bested a Sarkarnii warlord in his bath,” I reply, leaning down once again to scoop up my belt which contains some of my jewel hoard.

One large gem escapes and rolls across the floor to her feet.

The female stares down at it.

“My name is Kerra Russell,” she says absently.

I reach up and grab the pulsar from her hands. She releases a cry of alarm and annoyance.

“Kerra Russell.” I roll the name around in my mouth, tasting it, seeing how it feels on my tongue.

A tongue which wants to lap over her scaleless skin. Explore her body, dive between her legs…

“Kerra Russell,” I repeat, as I cage her against the wall. “You dare to challenge a Sarkarnii warlord?”

She doesn’t crumble. Her gaze never leaves mine.

“I do. I need to find my friend. I owe her my sanity. I owe her everything, and I won’t rest until she’s safe.”

I feel my brow furrow as my blood heats further, smoke billowing from me almost as if I’m ready to go into battle, for this tiny snack of a female, one who is clearly not Sarkarnii, who shouldn’t be making my cock want to unpouch, let alone push at my slit like it needs her.

“My warriors confirmed an escape pod had been launched from the Bloar craft,” I growl, not wanting to give her the information but being unable to help myself.

“It did?” Kerra gazes up at me, water in her eyes. “Then Rosalie must be alive. Do you know where she went?”

The way she looks at me, it’s making it hard to breathe properly without producing yet more smoke. Being this close to her makes her scent invade every pore of my body.

“It crash landed on Vorostor, as I expected,” I growl, as if growling is going to help this situation. The way the mating mix fills my veins, the way my hips want to move.

Kerra’s eyes widen at the words. They are the most particular shade of blue, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. Her strange round pupils are dark, but the brilliance of them is dazzling.

“Crashed?” she whispers, her voice hoarse. “I need…to find her,” she adds. “I need to make sure she’s okay.”

“She is another female like you?”

Kerra nods. “Human. That’s what I am, what we are.”

“Hoo-man.” I grunt. “Strange name for a species.”

“And what sort of name is Sarkarnii ?” she retorts, those eyes filled with mischief.

“It is a name which will hang on your lips until the day you die, little female. The Sarkarnii are everything to this galaxy. We protect, we take, and we rule. It is all ours.”

I can’t stop looking at her lips, especially as she bites down on the bottom one with her blunt little teeth. I am imagining them biting me somewhere else.

Wondering how much pain there will be when she envenomates me, if she dislikes my attentions.

Wondering what it will be like to be incapacitated by a female I rut for. My first rut.

The realization hits me harder than one of Daxx’s fists.

I cannot be going into rut for this creature. I will not rut. Not for her, not for any female.

Rutting is the very end for a warlord. And if Kerra is my destiny, my nova-days are numbered.